Personal statement makes me cringe too much to write it

I don't know what my ******* problem is. I don't have social anxiety or anything, but just the thought of having someone read my personal statement makes me feel too embarrassed/self-conscious to be able to even start writing it. I write a couple of sentences them remember them just feel like shriveling into a ball of cringe so I delete them and try to rewrite them but I've got nothing. I wish I could send it without having anyone read it before hand, but both my parents and my UCAS referee insist on reading it to check it's not utter shite (fair enough ngl).

I have no problem with in-person interviews etc, just the personal statement

Reply 1

Sevenlolol

Yeah I definitely relate to this , its hard making it not cliche and cringe tbh 😭 I guess everyone is the same, I read some past examples for my course and I just can't talk about myself that enthusiastically like those

Reply 2

sound-famous-

Original post by AlexTheIdiot

I don't know what my ******* problem is. I don't have social anxiety or anything, but just the thought of having someone read my personal statement makes me feel too embarrassed/self-conscious to be able to even start writing it. I write a couple of sentences them remember them just feel like shriveling into a ball of cringe so I delete them and try to rewrite them but I've got nothing. I wish I could send it without having anyone read it before hand, but both my parents and my UCAS referee insist on reading it to check it's not utter shite (fair enough ngl).
I have no problem with in-person interviews etc, just the personal statement

I'm not sure why you feel like your personal statement is an intimate window into your life. You aren't really meant to talk about yourself as a person, but rather about your interest in the subject and what you've done that can demonstrate that. It's personal in the sense that you talk about your own interest in the subject, not because you are talking about yourself as a person.

Choose some activities you will talk about (reading a book or going to a lecture or whatever), and the way you make it personal is by saying what you learnt from it, or what you enjoyed about it.